At the Winter Meetings, Paul Toboni, the President of Baseball Operations for the Washington Nationals, did the circuit of interviews and revealed that his manager, Blake Butera, has an MLB coaching staff assembled. This is the largest uniformed coaching staff the Nats have ever had and is numbered at 12 if you include Butera.
Some interesting background is that the staff only includes one coach from last year’s Nats staff and that is Sean Doolittle. While Chris Johnson was rumored to be part of the staff, as of now, that has not happened.
The average age of the staff is just over 36 years of age with only one coach, Michael Johns, who is older than 50. Well, last year’s Nats coaching staff averaged 51 years of age.
Only three coaches on this staff played in the Major Leagues, Doolittle, Bobby Wilson, and Corey Ray. And Ray’s tenure was just one game. There are five staff members who have never coached in the Major Leagues before, and they are Butera, Andrew Aydt, Victor Estevez, Dustin Glant, and Ray.
“… We have a number of staff members who don’t have Major League experience.”
— Toboni acknowledged this fact
Here is the current coaching staff:
- Manager: Blake Butera
- Bench Coach: Michael Johns
- Hitting Coach: Matt Borgschulte
- Assistant Hitting Coach: Andrew Aydt
- Pitching Coach: Simon Mathews
- Assistant Pitching Coach: Sean Doolittle
- First Base Coach: Corey Ray
- Third Base Coach: Victor Estevez
- Bullpen Coach: Dustin Glant
- Major League Field Coordinator: Tyler Smarslok
- Director of Catching: Bobby Wilson
- Bullpen Catcher/Development Coach: Grant Anders
Only Estevez was born as a Spanish-speaker, and Simon Mathews learned Spanish with fluency. Estevez was born in the Dominican Republic, and he actually has the most managerial experience, all in the minor leagues within the Milwaukee Brewers organization.
“Progress comes from stacking good decisions on top of good decisions. In the two months I’ve been here, this has manifested itself most visibly in the construction of our baseball operations staff, and hiring and maintaining some of the best talent in the industry to oversee player development, work in research and development, and oversee our hitting and pitching programs.”
— Toboni said
While the full front office staff and minor league staff have not been fully disclosed, we should hear soon enough on those hires. Many of Toboni’s lieutenants are in Orlando with him for the Winter Meetings. They are active now fielding inquires on trade scenarios for MacKenzie Gore, and rumors heated up today on shortstop CJ Abrams.
To this day, the Nats have not been mentioned in any ties with free agents. That is odd, but not totally surprising, although Toboni mentioned that he was targeting acquisitions of pitchers and a first baseman after the team acquired catcher Harry Ford in a trade on Saturday that cost Toboni the loss of his closer, Jose A. Ferrer, in that trade. So add a closer to the shopping list.
“[Trades] will be one avenue [for acquisitions], but one of a few, I think. We want to be active in all areas — whether that’s Minor League free agency, Major League free agency, waivers, the Rule-5, and whatever it is. If we have an opportunity to be active and to upgrade the team, we’re going to do it.”
— Toboni said today
While the Nats will be mostly linked to trades, Toboni did say that Rule-5 could be an avenue for the team to acquire talent for the roster as well as free agency.
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